Blood shortage could hit early next year

Published: Monday, June 28, 1999

WASHINGTON {AP} Americans take for granted they'll get a blood transfusion whenever they need one, but soon that may not be the case: Blood donations are dropping so low that serious, nationwide shortages could hit as early as next year.

The government is so concerned that Surgeon General David Satcher has a committee hunting ways to get more people to donate blood more often, studying such incentives as giving donors time away from work or small rewards like T-shirts.

And some blood banks have started creative programs to lure donors one in Iowa even gives puppet shows and science demonstrations to school students, grooming them to donate as soon as they turn 17.

"We operate on a very thin margin of safety for the blood supply, and if that trend continues it would put us in a year-round shortage in a few years," said Dr. Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania, who heads a federal committee on blood issues.

The National Blood Data Resource Center is more pessimistic: Its studies predict that next year, Americans will donate just under 11.7 million units of blood but that hospitals will need 11.9 million units.

Blood donations are decreasing about 1 percent a year. Demand for blood is increasing by 1 percent a year.

Already, some cities routinely experience temporary blood shortages during holidays like the Fourth of July weekend and the summer, when regular blood donors go on vacation.

"When you need surgery, when you need cancer treatment, when a woman gives birth we all assume the blood will be there," Caplan said. "You can't make that assumption anymore."

Why are donations dropping? Nobody really knows, although blood banks say younger generations have never shown the enthusiasm of post-World War II donors. About 60 percent of Americans are estimated to be eligible donors, but only 5 percent donate.

It's partly convenience and being reminded that blood is needed, said Satcher.

Even "when I give blood, it's in the context of the Red Cross coming around to where you work," he said. "There are people who would donate at least twice as much if they knew they were needed."